Senior designers, do you think I should do an unpaid internship?

What year of UG are you in? Are you in a design college or non-design college? I’ll share my perspective as a student intern and as an employer who has hired interns. As a student in design from one of the premier institutes, I didn’t have trouble finding internships. But my focus was to intern with a design studio who’s work I loved and admired. My focus was to get the exposure and learn industry-specific skills; but didn’t care much about the salary. I got 12k and survived in a metro city for 3-4 months; post which I had to return to my college to complete my graduation. I was fortunate enough to have a family who could support me during this time. Would I have done this internship for free? Probably yes, because they were teaching me a lot of technical skills and very little of my work was getting billed to a client. Now from an employer’s perspective. I am looking at hiring folks who have some fundamental understanding of design and basic industry skills. I am willing to invest some time on their growth and in return need their support on projects. While this is a learning opportunity for the interns, I have some expectations from them. Will I hire them for free? Absolutely NOT. I make sure they receive a salary and clear path to becoming a permanent employee.

Unpaid internship? Absolutely not. Exploitation in the name of experience is a sham. Aim higher, be fierce. "Dimaag aur mehnat ka badla toh milna chahiye, hai na?" Are you not worth it?

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If you like the work of the studio/company, but don't have skills, working for free would help you.